V2O5 NANOPARTICLES FOR DYES REMOVAL FROM WATER

Abstract

Rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization pose significant threats to the aquatic ecosystem. The discharge of untreated dyes contaminated wastewater causes harmful chemical and biological changes in water bodies as well as human disease. The most common dye used at industrial scale is methylene blue (MB). Recently, numerous metal oxide nanoparticles adsorbents have been applied for the purpose of treatment of water from dyes. This paper deals with V2O5 nanoparticles adsorbents, obtained by thermal pre-treatment carried out by increasing the temperatures between 90 and 750°C. The surface chemistry of the newly prepared nanoparticles was investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric techniques. Furthermore, the prepared nanoparticles were tested for MB removal from modelled water solution. The obtained results indicated that high MB removal efficiency (93%) and adsorption capacity (27 mg/g) after 40 min of adsorption were obtained for samples of V2O5 annealed at 500°C in comparison with V2O5 treated at 90, 250 and 750°C, respectively. The applicability and suitability of the two kinetic models were tested and the removal mechanism was proposed.